


not only to believe in ourselves, but in each other

by MyCupOfTea, singerofsimplesongs



Category: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: M/M, Minor Character Death, PTSD, Pacific Rim AU, bullet point fic, drift compatible, mentions of past substance abuse, no beta we die like tim, oh which reminds me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-13 04:47:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29895846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyCupOfTea/pseuds/MyCupOfTea, https://archiveofourown.org/users/singerofsimplesongs/pseuds/singerofsimplesongs
Summary: The Lone Star Pacific Rim AU goes something like this.
Relationships: Carlos Reyes/TK Strand
Kudos: 25





	not only to believe in ourselves, but in each other

**Author's Note:**

> this was supposed to be a fun quick list, and then my girlfriend got involved, we watched the movie, we put my tarlos playlist on, it ended up on a google doc, and now this is a 2k bullet-pointed monstrosity. will we eventually turn this into a full fic? who knows (probably not, but maybe some one-shots will show up down the road, even though both of us currently have several wips for this fandom)

  * Owen lost several of his original teammates when they first started the Jaeger program and they tried to have people single pilot. He still had lasting effects from trying to single pilot himself.
  * TK was a pilot with Alex. Alex left him to be a pilot with Mitchell. Alex and Mitchell died on their first solo run together which led to TK’s relapse.
  * Judd lost his entire team in a Kaiju attack, he’s the lone survivor and doesn’t try to drift again with anyone anymore because of the PTSD.
  * Owen and TK go from the Alaska base when it closes down and get sent to Hong Kong where they meet up with the rest of the 126 crew.
  * Mateo, Marjan, and Paul are like the triplet pilots, they all drift with each other.
  * Judd now hangs out with Grace who runs dispatch for the pilots, her voice is the one over the comms when they’re fighting Kaiju. If he has to drift with anyone, it’ll be Owen.
  * And then there’s Carlos. 


  * Carlos is not liked around the Hong Kong base. He’s super skilled on simulations, he’s been helping make the program better, he would be an excellent pilot but he’s gay and most of the pilots are hot heads and no one wants to drift with him. He tends to hang around with Grace and Judd in the dispatch room, or with Michelle who studies the Kaiju.
  * Carlos just generally has a hard time connecting enough with people to be drift compatible with them, it’s hard for him to put himself out there, whereas TK could be compatible with almost everyone he’s ever met.
  * The only person he might be drift compatible with would be Michelle but this is not a good idea because their trauma surrounding Iris (who disappeared while piloting a Jaeger) triggers each other. 
  * Michelle -along with Tommy, Nancy, and Tim- studies the Kaiju. Michelle and Tim are the bio nerds, Tommy and Nancy have the math down on how fast the kaiju are coming through the Breech. Michelle is the dumbass who drifts with one.
  * The Strands, Paul, Marjan, and Mateo arrive and are immediately impressed with the work Carlos has done. They sit with him in the cafeteria, they talk to him about the things he’s seen, he finally has friends that like him.
  * TK is still very adamant that he doesn’t want a partner again. He doesn’t want to get betrayed like that again by someone who’s been in his head. Since he is avoiding being a pilot, he hangs out with the scientists quite a bit, which is how he gets to know Carlos pretty well.
  * Owen is super reluctant to let TK pilot again because he’s afraid TK will get lost in his memories and may jeopardize a partners ability to stay connected to him. He makes him go to therapy twice a week before he can pilot again. 
  * Carlos and TK start this dance around each other. TK starts eating with the whole crew more (instead of moodily eating lunch in the construction bay where sometimes Carlos joins him), starts warming up to maybe doing this again, starts hooking up with Carlos. Carlos thinks they have something more and could be pilots together. TK spooks.
  * TK starts a fight with some of the construction crew guys in the cafeteria to feel something and Carlos visits him in the infirmary after to confront him about it. TK explains what happened with Alex and then his relapse. It’s very much the precinct scene, just in the infirmary. 
  * TK eventually goes to Owen and says he wants to try again. The 126 crew compiles a whole list of possible candidates for him (but don’t realize how close he and Carlos are).
  * TK trials with several candidates, and he feels good about them, but eventually calls out Carlos for his little “hm” every time TK finishes each combat trial.
  * Carlos: “it’s not them, it’s you. You could have taken them two movies earlier” TK: “alright then let’s see your moves then Mr. Reyes”. Their sexual tension is insane and all of the 126 watching them are like wtf when did this happen. 
  * They’re perfect together. Owen is suddenly terrified that his kid is gonna get hurt again. Michelle is THRILLED that Carlos has finally found someone to drift with.
  * Their first trial run doesn’t go super well. TK gets stuck briefly in his memories surrounding his overdose and Alex’s death. Which triggers Carlos to get stuck in memories of him getting bullied as a kid, getting bullied at the base, and ultimately how he came out to his parents and they didn’t accept him.
  * It’s not catastrophically bad like in the movie, it just exposes a lot of insecurities to each other and they don’t know if they’ll be ready to take on the mission to the Breach.
  * (When they break the connection, Carlos calls him Tyler Kennedy for the first time)
  * TK goes to Owen, who’s in the middle of discussing things with the Science Squad™️ (because Michelle just drifted with a Kaiju) to talk things over. TK offers to drift with someone else since he’s been able to pilot before with almost anyone, and Owen advises him that he shouldn’t do that again because that’s a lot of yourself to expose to so many people and he thinks that’s a part of TKs mental health and anxiety struggles.
  * Michelle chimes in and adds that TK is the only person Carlos has ever been compatible with (which shakes TK to his core). 
  * Tim, who was also part of the first pilot program and now hangs out with the science geeks because he took on too much radiation and can’t pilot anymore, offers to be a pilot if they ever need one. 
  * Owen points out that TK might not be as compatible with everyone as he thinks since the first time he drifted he didn’t have the trauma -- but he does now and Carlos was able to take it on. And Carlos was by far the best candidate in the trials. 
  * TK confronts Carlos about him not drifting with anyone else. Eventually they get to a point where TK makes a dumb “aw babe you could have told me it was your first time” comment and Carlos tells him it wasn’t, it was just the first time it mattered, the first time he felt safe.
  * The more emotionally intimate they get while sharing each other’s thoughts and feelings, the less physical their relationship gets, but Carlos still likes to kiss TK’s head and cheek and hands and be constantly touching him as much as possible. 
  * They do a lot of talking about their relationship but only in terms of talking about drifting. “When I saw you and your memories in the drift I had a lot of feelings, strong feelings, which is crazy because I still don’t even know you that well.” 
  * Double Kaijus appear. The teams deployed are two teams who don’t make it (Radford and Broussard, Tina and Taylor), The Paul/Marjan/Mateo team (Guardian Angle, which is originally an accident on Mateo’s part but it works since there’s three of them), and Billy Tyson and Yvette (Royal Flush) who breaks her arm and can’t do the final breech mission. 
  * TK, Carlos, Owen, Judd watch this all go down. TK is very triggered but newly determined to try this all again. When the two teams go down (and the two newer Jaegers get powered down), he and Carlos offer to go in. 
  * It’s all very gay and flirty and adorable and they save the day. 
  * “What are you thinking?” “I’m thinking...we make a pretty good team.” 
  * They plan to hit the Breech by sending four teams: the Trio, TK and Carlos, Billy and Owen, and there’s talk of Judd going with Tommy in one of the salvaged Jaegers from the earlier failed mission, but Tommy is very concerned about leaving her girls, and Judd is super scared he’s gonna trigger her and this mission needs to have tight teams.
  * Billy and Owen turn out to be a catastrophic failure. They are very much not compatible.
  * Owen and Judd work well together though because they’ve been helping each other through their PTSD.
  * Tim ends up offering to go with Billy even though he knows its a suicide mission for him. They are compatible since they used to work together in the original jaeger program, even though they were on different teams.
  * TK offers to go with Billy, but Owen points out that he and Carlos work so well together, Carlos isn’t compatible with anyone else, and they’re the only one that can pilot TKs old Jaeger because not everyone was trained on it. 
  * Michelle is off trying to get another Kaiju brain to drift with, which Carlos is furious about -- “that’s rECKless” -- especially since they tried to be drift compatible and it didn't work and now she’s drifting with giant alien sea monster brain. 
  * Michelle encounters the pregnant kaiju and plans to drift with it, Tommy offers to be the one to share that load with her, and they find out the kaiju master plan. 
  * Picture Michelle and Tommy scrambling to shout at their disaster crew about how they need a kaiju carcass to get through the Breech. 
  * The whole team is fighting. The Kaiju are ruthless. Guardian Angle and Owen and Judd all take a bad enough hit that they have to surface. Owen tries desperately to stay in their Jaeger to help TK, but Judd forces him to eject and then follows him. It’s just Tim, Billy, Carlos, and TK left.
  * Tim and Billy take a critical hit. Billy is severely injured and won’t survive being deployed to the surface in a rescue pod. Tim has already taken too much on and is starting to go a little crazy a la Zombie Tim. 
  * Nancy realizes Tim is gonna sacrifice himself to get TK and Carlos through. She asks him who’s gonna feed Buster. Tim asks her to. Everyone cries. 
  * “What are we gonna do now, Billy?” “Clear a path. For our boys.” They go down swinging. 
  * TK and Carlos are the only ones left. Owen tells TK they can fix the damaged jaegers and try again. TK and Carlos are both adamant that this is their only shot and they have to do this. Owen, Judd, Marjan, Mateo, and Paul are all safely up on helicopters that came to rescue them and everyone is just a mess. 
  * Grace, Michelle, Tommy, and Nancy are all at the Shatterdome watching the signatures and TK and Carlos’ oxygen levels. 
  * They hold hands as they take the Kaiju into the Breech. 
  * TK is losing oxygen fast so Carlos gives him his. 
  * TK tries to tell him not to do this without him, they’re a team, and Carlos tells him it’s okay, he can finish this alone since he’s been alone for so long. TK says something devastating about not being able to lose someone else. The Night We Met plays in the background. TK is almost delirious, Carlos is with it enough to tell TK he loves him, and then ejects TK from the Jaeger. 
  * Carlos is losing oxygen, he’s got to manually override the detonator, he’s sinking too fast, everyone is trying to tell him to come up, they’ll try again. Carlos is stubborn af and does not do any of that, and manually triggers the reactor before ejecting himself. 
  * His escape pod takes a heartbreakingly long time to show up on the radar, and when it does they cannot get a signature from him. 
  * Both pods surface. TK’s vitals are good, but there’s nothing coming from Carlos’ pod. TK swims to Carlos, pulls his pod cover off, looks for a pulse, can’t find one. Michelle is sobbing, Nancy is shouting that the signature might be wrong, Tommy has turned away from the computer, Grace has a hand over her mic and is crying silently. 
  * TK gathers Carlos up in his arms, berating him for doing it alone, how dare he just leave him like that, they were supposed to be a team. 
  * Carlos: “you’re squeezing me too tight. Can’t breathe.”
  * TK, seeing Carlos’ dopey grin: “oh you’re such a dick” 
  * They touch foreheads, they kiss, Tommy tells everyone to stop the clock, the whole crew in the helicopter is cheering. They saved the world, the end. Steamy post credit scene of them making out to Sex and Stardust. Now it’s the end. 




End file.
